Persuassive Essay Draft

What College is for

College is for students to grow intellectually, help them mature as a person, and prepare them for a potential job or career. Nonetheless, there is perpetual argument about the failure of higher education. The quality of college experience is depreciating partially due to the university curriculum which disengages students from materials they are supposed to be learning. These days, many students work for high GPA and pay attention to the materials that are relevant to future employment. Lack of academic commitment is a genuine concern even among prestigious schools. If this continues, the misunderstanding of what college is for will not get resolved. There were numerous tries to make changes to come up with a solution to the problem. Yet, people tend to change the whole system rather than to transform gradually. Basic understanding of what the core dilemma is priority rather than increasing the number of graduate students. After experiencing Penn State education, I became aware of sincere drawbacks that disturbed students’ academic life. Concerning the enhancement of higher education, cut down of requirements for general education, reduction of morning classes, and construction of tunnels that connect the buildings are necessary.

General education is primarily for the students to gain opportunity to explore new ideas in various fields of study and discover unknown interests. It serves as foundation for specific majors, recognition of individual’s possible potentials and promotes integration of knowledge into a coherent worldview. The purpose of general education plays important aspect in college community. However, the pressure of total number of general education credits is too much to handle for some students with majors of high totals that also have to get fulfilled in order to graduate. On top of major courses to take, general education requirements are seen as disposals that students have to deal with for the university diploma. Thus, students do not approach these general education classes with the same devotion as they do with other core classes. Conjointly, professors who are committed to teach subjects as if everyone is anticipating on majoring in the subject aggravate the problem. As a result, innocent grade point average will suffer and interrupt one’s desiring prospect. Also, students register general education courses based on the easiness and familiarity instead of exploration and skills. Defeating the purpose, general education is portrayed as grade boosters to many students which mean that they do not take classes to learn materials. Students should not be taking classes that cover materials they have already been familiar with at some point in high school. Based on universities, the price of each class registration differs, but certainly nowhere is cheap. College tuition rises exponentially every year and it is not fair for students to pay for classes they are enforced to take that will not benefit them in any ways. Those money could be better spent somewhere else. Additionally, it is easy for students to skip those classes because they believe that those classes are not relevant to their majors. If general education courses prepare students for, support, and enrich other specific courses, the efficiency of education will enhance. Disconnection between general education requirements and entrance to major courses leads to the failure of acquiring real values of general education. Exceptions to those students who do not know their prospective major, general education might be one way to help them find their path. It should be open to everyone but not mandatory for students. Ultimately, students desire for higher education because it opens up the entrance to employment and allows class mobility in the society. Though, most of the jobs oblige specific skills rather than broad knowledge of various subjects. It would be more difficult to market the value of such incoherent curriculum to potential employers. General education courses should not be required for college students because college is where students spend time focusing on and learning about what they are going to do for the rest of their life, not for learning bits and pieces of every possible subject on campus.

College students are most sleep-deprived people in the world. Combination of education and social life often leads to the irregular sleep habits. Students trade off sleep with their lab reports, essays, homework, projects, and readings. They often pull all-nighters, eat late-night, and drink energy drinks, which could all lead to permanent brain damage. Also, food that students consume at night is not healthy at all. From 2001 study, “only 11% of college students have good sleep quality, 73% have sleep problems, 18% of college men, and 30% of college women suffer from insomnia.” Suggested hours of sleep for healthy person are eight hours, but it is far-fetched dream for college students. Enough sleep is necessary for students to store what they learned in class during the deep sleep that occurs all through the night. With deficient sleep, not only students cannot function regularly during daytime, but they also ruin their health by weakening immunity. They lumber throughout the day feeling lethargic and exhausted because of lack of sleep. Some symptoms of sleep deprivation are loss of productivity, cause of sensitive behaviors, lowering of grades, and constant mood swings. Yet, college is reluctant to this issue and seems like it is treating sleep as luxury, not as essentiality. For many students, morning classes can be the reason why they cannot get enough sleep. If it is possible to sleep early in the night, morning classes will not affect students’ life. In reality, however, students have sleep debts that has been piling up to get paid off. Attendance rate of morning classes is usually low compare to other classes in the afternoon. Also, students race to register afternoon classes and avoid 8 am class. Clearly, students will not stay awake even if they end up going to the class. Not only morning classes interrupt the sleeping pattern, but also take away the time to eat breakfast. Skipping breakfast can lead to various unhealthy eating habits. Breakfast is known for the most important meal of the day. The amount of college work will not change immediately, so the solution to the problem of sleep deprivation seems unapproachable. In order to engage more students to come to the class and pay attention is to reduce morning classes and increase availability of more afternoon classes. There are some students who focus better in the morning so complete destruction of morning classes is unreasonable. Yet, to improve quality of higher education generally, the growth of appropriate time for classes is essential.

Accidents occur on campus due to numerous reasons such as bad weather and too many pedestrians and vehicles. Penn State, located in the middle of mountains, is affected by hazardous weather during all four seasons, threatening students’ safety. According to Wisconsin University, they have created underground tunnels that connect residence halls and academic buildings for students’ convenience. Creation of tunnels that connect buildings for students will reduce the accidents that occur due to severe weather. Most of the colleges do not close due to snow and other weather concerns, enforcing students to pull through obstacles to go to classes. People slip, fall, get sick, and skip classes which are not the purpose of what college is for. Also, it would be much safer for students to walk underground, avoiding cars and buses. Penn State has over 40,000 undergraduate students, so the traffic system is very hectic. Cars need to wait until large group of people finish crossing and students need to pay close attention to the bikes and rushing cars. Besides student’s safety and organized transportation, colleges should have tunnels to support forming better environment for research studies. One major difference between college and high school is that students get to participate in research with university professors to discover and develop important laboratory skills and explore career choices. Many publish, perform, exhibit, or present their work and share it with the community and beyond. For those who work in labs sometimes need to transfer data and experiments from one place to another and safety is required for successful study. Instead of spending money on buying excessive snowplows, colleges can invest in making tunnels to create guaranteed, safer setting for students to study. With establishment of tunnels that connect dorms to academic buildings, more students will attend classes within the right time. The core problem of higher education is to engage students to learn passionately and devote their times to explore intuitively, not to increase the number of college graduates and waste tons of money for nothing. Start of approaching these goals is to make students go to the classes they want to go. It is college’s job to provide the atmosphere for students to succeed.

“Well begun is half done,” by Aristotle, implies that the first step is always the hardest, but the following steps would be easier to accomplish. Today, many parents and students forgot the purpose of higher education. Certainly, college is not just for supporting students with a substantial job at a reasonable salary. Many people crave for the college students to learn citizenry, joy of living, adaptation to adult social life, and independence. Yet, the core objective is to provide personal intellectual growth. According to the College Board, the average college tuition for 2013-2014 was $30,094 at private colleges, $22,203 for out-of-state public colleges, and 8,893 for in-state public colleges. People pay all those money not for students to skip classes, take unnecessary classes, and sleep in classes. Adjustment towards improved higher education is urgent to prevent further confusion of why college matters. More and more Americans are going to college, but how many of them are actually learning anything? To get to whatever destination students pursue, college should support students with better curriculums and safer environment.